INSIDE Tucker Park dedication > page 4
Volume 57, Number 41 • October 20, 2011
Supervisor hopefuls spar at second forum By Jim Ridolphi news@goochlandgazette.com
File Photo by Ken Odor
Goochland Superintendent of Schools Linda Underwood and School Board Chairman Ivan Mattox confer at a January School Board meeting. The School Board took action last week to amend Underwood’s contract extension, correcting the date to comply with Virginia law.
Superintendent’s contract amended By Jim Fields jfields@mechlocal.com
The Goochland County School Board took a step Oct. 11 at its monthly meeting to correct errors made in extending Superintendent Linda Underwood’s employment contract by changing the end date to June 30, 2014.
INDEX
Calendar 20 Classifieds 21-23 Letters 6 Local Exchange 12
A statement read by School Board Chairman Ivan Mattox said, “In response to questions and concerns that have been raised about the Superintendent’s Contract, the School Board would like to approve a contract that makes all of the terms and conditions clear. In the past, the School Board executed two Contract Addenda.
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What we have done is incorporated all of the terms from the original Superintendent’s Contract and the two Contract Addenda into one document. The idea is to try and make everything as clear as possible. The contract also revises the end date of the Superintendent’s see Contract > page 4
Nine candidates for Goochland supervisor seats took turns at the podium of the Goochland Recreation Center last week in a lively question and answer session hosted by the county’s NAACP chapter. They fielded audience generated questions highlighting key issues facing the upcoming board including the downturn in the local economy, the nagging debt Tuckahoe Creek Service District debt, communication between the county’s two elected boards and economic disparity in the county. “Our mission was to inform the public and I think we met that challenge,” said forum moderator and NAACP president Sekou Shabaka. Any discussion of financial matters in the county has to include an examination of the Tuckahoe Creek Service District and its failure to meet revenue expectations. Formed in 2002, the original agreement established lofty repayment goals that relied on an optimistic growth rate in the county. A recent study submitted to the sitting supervisors identified options to revise the plan that included refinancing the debt or spreading the increasing utility costs countywide. District 1 candidate Susan Lascolette expressed vehement opposition to the burden being shifted to all taxpayers in the
county. “Every one I’ve talked to in District 1 is adamantly opposed to that concept as am I,” she said. “Ultimately, it will be economic development that fixes the problem,” she added. Proposed ad valorem taxes equate to residents in the TCSD paying more taxes than their neighbors in Henrico County, a situation that could stifle the already dormant housing market in the county. District 1 incumbent Andrew Pryor said fixing the TCSD problem might require extending the life of the bond and changes in the zoning within the district. “The TCSD was put in at the request of landowners in the district. The ones that chose to be in the plan agreed that they were the ones who would benefit from it and they would be the ones to pay for it,” Pryor said. District 5 candidate Ken Peterson, who is running unopposed, said relying on information provided by the same company which originally structured the debt was precarious, at best. The retired U.S. Army officer said his financial experience would allow him to tackle the problem with a new perspective. District 2 incumbent William Quarles said the board is considering options to address the TCSD woes. “The TCSD was born by the investors and the people who owned the land, and it will take all of
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see Forum > page 2